Contracts, Pay, & Working Conditions

Last Updated: February 6, 2019

What's The Current Situation?

During the 2018 session, our state Legislature changed the way our schools are funded to fulfill the Supreme Court's requirements in the McCleary Decision. As a result of the sudden influx of new money into the system, teachers across the state got a much-deserved and unprecedented raise. The Legislature put a one-year 3.1% cap on administrator pay, which means in many schools across the state, the gap between principal/assistant principal salaries was greatly reduced or eliminated.

We know the work principals do is extremely rewarding, but it is also equally stressful, difficult, and never done. We believe there must be a sustained and substantial gap between principals salaries and the teachers they evaluate and supervise. We also acknowledge superintendents have been put in an impossible position as they try to balance a budget to keep staff well-paid and happy while maintaining a focus on programs and services for kids.

What Is AWSP Doing?

We've been hard at work with this issue, from helping principals manage teacher strikes this past summer to guiding local principals groups through contract negotiations. We continue to go on the offensive and work on this issue on all fronts. On a larger scale, we:

Dedicated a bunch of resources to increase awareness about what happened.

Continue to let legislators knew what happened as a result of the 3.1% cap.

Collaborate with partners and stakeholders to provide more support.

Provide regional support through meetings and forums to hear your issues and give advice.

Anything Else?

One of the other ways we brought the issue to awareness is with our new talk show for principals, AWSP TV. We had former Governor Christine Gregoire on as a guest. She had a lot of great things about the work principals do, their importance to the system, and what she called "wage compression."

Watch her talk about the situation in the video below. We've queued it right up for you.

Christine Gregoire

It’s about respect…what happened is a mistake that needs to be corrected, and soon.”

What Have Districts Done?

A number of districts decided allocated salary increases for principals above the legislatively-mandated 3.1% cap and at a ratio that maintained an acceptable gap. Others introduced more conservative, interim modifications such as salary adjustments up to 3.1%, contract reopener clauses for 2019-2020, and short-term corrections like:

Added vacation days with the option to cash them in and/or use while school is in session.

Reduced number of contracted work-days.

Enhanced cell phone stipends.

Increased number of paid supplementary work hours (e.g. evening and weekend events).

We know other districts found short-term corrections to the pay-gap predicament. We’d love to hear your thoughts and some of the solutions negotiated around the state.

Our Guidance For District Negotiations

Start Now and Plan Ahead

Initiate contract negotiations soon. Signed labor agreements carry precedence over new legislation and our Magic 8-Ball is unclear whether members of the Legislature will begin writing new laws and regulations for “Salary Cap 2.0.”

We highly recommend adding permanent language to your contracts linking the principals' salary schedule to the teachers'. Be sure to use per diemrates and the high school principal’s salary as an anchoring starting point.

For example: "The first-year high school principal’s per diem rate shall be ___% of the highest paid cell on the teacher salary schedule.”

Several districts explored contract language and calculation formulas linking the principals’ and teachers’ salary schedules. For more information and possible language for your own district, reach out us.

We're Here For You

Principal contract negotiations can strain the cohesiveness of leadership teams. AWSP’s The Principal and the Management Teamis a helpful reference guide for developing contracts. If you want to see what other contracts might look like for comparable districts, email Annalee Braley, our Membership Coordinator.

You must be signed-in to view the Principal and the Management Team document, but some members are getting errors regardless. If that's the case, Annalee can also email you a copy. We're looking into what's causing the errors, but don't have a fix yet.

Closing Thoughts

As we continue to make sure there's a legislative fix, keep cultivating supportive relationships with your district leadership team. As we navigate the challenges of the McCleary funding changes, kindness and collaboration will help everyone remain focused on providing the equitable and exemplary culture, systems, and learning all students deserve. So negotiate your contract in good faith while remaining steadfast and unapologetic about advocating for the obvious.

A substantial and sustained gap between teachers’ and principals’ salaries is about respect and is critical for maintaining the health of our education system.

Lastly, 552 of our members responded to a principal pay and working conditions survey this past fall. Thank you. The data has been and will be incredibly valuable as we advocate for you, not just on the salary issue, but also trying to keep the job sustainable and reduce principal churn and burnout. We've put together a few charts from some of that data. Just click the link below to check it out.